


nowhere

by vvelna



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: M/M, Spooky Happenings, blood and descriptions of minor injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-08-01 07:12:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16280030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vvelna/pseuds/vvelna
Summary: Dan and Phil get lost on a road trip.





	nowhere

**Author's Note:**

> the bingo bingoes on. the prompts were "road trip" and "werewolf"

Parched dirt and brown grass, heat rising off the pavement and blurring the distance. The stench of the sunscreen Phil’s slathered on himself. No cell service. Water bottles gone lukewarm. Snack stash depleted and a hungry, hollow pit in Dan’s stomach. Tank leaning toward empty.

“I think we’re lost.”

“Thanks, Phil. I had no idea.”

Dan squints at a crumpled map they picked up at a motel. His phone’s become a useless brick, no longer allowing him to make calls or access the internet. He can see the town they came from, and the place they’re trying to reach, but he has no idea where they are in relation to either point.

Phil pushes the passenger side door open and stumbles out to join Dan, sitting on the side of the road in the shade of the shadow cast by the car. He keeps his eyes focused down and away from the sun; he's wearing his normal glasses rather than sunglasses like Dan.

“What are we going to do?

Dan doesn’t answer him, because he’s got no fucking clue. They’re lost on a road trip in the bowels of some American purgatory. He isn’t even sure what state they’re in anymore. New Mexico? Arizona? Nevada? They haven’t seen another vehicle in at least an hour. Nor any road signs or mile markers. The asphalt flows in a never ending straight line. A rash of pink is starting to spread across the pristine blue sky. The last thing they want is to be caught out here when night falls.

“Let’s get back in and keep going, I guess.”

Ten minutes of driving. Dan’s phone dies, and Phil turns his off to save the battery. The sky bleeds out overhead. Dan feels like he’s running down an endless corridor. Except instead of a corridor, it’s a limitless desert expanse, and they seek civilization, which remains out of sight.

Twenty minutes more. Dan’s eyes keep drifting to the red arrow eclipsing the E on the fuel indicator. Phil has a headache; his eyes have been closed for a while. Dan doesn’t think he’s asleep, but he doesn’t try to find out either way. He doesn’t need Phil awake and freaking out.

Dan would love to go to sleep. He could have sworn when they were mapping out the trip, none of the journeys between each stop were estimated to take more than two hours. They’ve definitely been on this stretch for longer than that. There is no doubt they’re lost. He didn’t care where they ended up now, as long as they made it _somewhere._

An unknown amount of time passes. The sky is a deep, midnight blue. Phil is awake now, eyes fixed to the moon. It hangs full in the sky, silver and surrounded by countless stars. Dan drives onward through the velvet darkness.

The car begins to slow, then stutters to a stop. Tank’s finally sucked dry. They sit in silence. Dan’s not sure what there is to say. They’re well and truly fucked, unless someone comes along, and that seems unlikely. They could get out and walk, but what would be the point? Abandoning the car and their possessions to wander aimlessly through the desert to their deaths doesn’t sound appealing.

“Looks like we’re sleeping in the car,” he says, with a heavy sigh.

“No—you’re not serious?”

“Got a better idea?”

Phil apparently doesn’t, because he’s got nothing to say. They’re both incredibly fatigued. Tired enough to sleep in a car in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere.

They extend their seats back as far as they’ll go, knowing full well that their backs and legs will be wrecked the next morning. They roll themselves up in heavy blankets. The night air feels like a completely different climate.

Dan’s not sure he’ll be able to sleep. He feels like he needs to be on high alert and on the lookout for danger. Bears, bandits, serial killers. Probably not bears. But his tank’s as empty as the car’s. He falls asleep.

A distant scream wakes him up. That, and Phil shaking his shoulder roughly.

“Dan. Dan, wake up. Dan.”

“I’m awake,” he groans, sitting up. “What the hell was that?”

Right on cue, the sound repeats. It’s not really a scream. More of a wail. A sound of grief or anguish. It raises goosebumps all along his arms and his heart thumps heavy.

Phil grips Dan’s arm so tightly he thinks it’ll bruise. The wailing continues, getting louder. No, closer. Whatever is making it is moving toward them. Phil releases Dan and throws one of the blankets over their heads. He grabs Dan again and pulls them both out of their seats and onto the floor. Dan’s head knocks against the underside of the glove compartment and he winces, but doesn’t make a sound. Elbows, knees, and feet dig into ribs and softer flesh. He can’t figure out where Phil’s face is.

The wailing stops. Dan can hear Phil breathing heavily but nothing else.

Dan’s about to risk a whisper when something slams so hard against the side of the car behind him that the tires lift off the ground. They both shriek and Dan’s knee finds Phil’s face. He can hear something crunching—bone or the frames of his glasses or both—and then the other side of the car gets hit and one of Phil’s feet catches him in the throat, stopping his next scream.

As suddenly as it began, the assault stops. Still and silent. They don’t dare move. A minute or five pass.

“I’m going to look,” Dan whispers, so softly he’s not sure Phil can even hear him. He doesn’t know where this sudden courage is coming from. Not sure if it’s even courage. He feels strange. His brain is weightless, hovering over the top of his skull, and his muscles tense and then melt. He might be delirious.

He shifts around in the tight space, releasing his head from the blanket and trying to sit up. He just needs to peek out of the window. See if the light of the moon will reveal anything to him.

Nothing, just a world of cold blue.

Then the car flips and everything goes black.

*

There’s hot breath on his face. Something wet dribbling onto his cheek. The softest touch of fur. Dan opens his eyes and sees two glowing orbs floating above him.

He closes his eyes, and when he opens them next the sun is high in the sky. The car is back on its wheels, but the glass in all four windows has shattered, and a wide crack cuts across the windshield.

Phil’s not in the car. Dan opens the door, his body spilling out onto the road. His muscles ache and his head throbs. His memory of the night before is fractured. Was there a car accident? There was some kind of animal, too. A dog, he thinks.

“Phil?”

He hears a whimper and tries to stand up, but his legs won’t allow it. They’re too weak. He crawls around to the back of the car. The ground is painfully hot beneath his palms.

Phil’s sitting there, huddled up and hiding behind his knees.

“Phil?”

His head snaps up. His eyes are wide, frantic. There’s a cut across the bridge of his nose where his glasses dug in before the frames snapped, and four red, inflamed scratches running down the left side of his face.

Dan moves closer. Phil’s clutching his arm to his chest, the sleeve of his hoodie soaked with blood.

“It bit me.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading :)
> 
> [ reblog/like on tumblr ](https://velvetnautilus.tumblr.com/private/178998081270/tumblr_pgimj6OaRh1wm9q5f)


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